I’m a big fan of these September weekends where I wake up and my bedroom has neither the humidity nor the ambient temperature of an Eden Project rainforest-o-dome. Autumn was previously my third favourite season at best, but I think we need to have a serious conversation about top two.

The additional thermal headroom to comfortably run a toasty graphics card also makes this one of the better times to play games. Including these, and also, the ones you’re going to tell us about in the comments.

Mark:
I’ll likely be hopping between NBA 2K27 and Crusader Kings 3, building very different but equally revered or disastrous dynasties. The years will flow by, courts will be held, armies of similarly-garbed folk will march from place to place, powerful people will rise and fall, gaudy gold baubles will be handed out, and talking heads will document it all in fascinated tones.

Ollie:
I have cats up here in Scotland at last! Mango and Maisie. The former is a lovely year-old orange and white boi. The latter is a crazy white 4-month-old kitten. Obligatory pic. This weekend I will be playing the game of trying not to die from blood loss due to the hundred-thousand scratches covering every inch of my body.

Jeremy:
My time with The Blood of Dawnwalker continues as I proceed to run around this little Romanian valley becoming significantly OP enough to destroy the big bad. I just helped a goat woman become a local mob boss; anything is possible!

Edwin:
I’ll be playing [REDACTED] and also, maybe some of that Wardogs.

James:
I would also like to play Wardogs, albeit for probably sillier reasons. I’m also flitting in and out of brutalist freerunner Vholume, which… I dunno, it’s alright? Nice ‘Early Source game’ aesthetic, and quality parkouring to be sure, though I’ve not yet felt compelled to blast through more than two or three stages at a time. I hope this doesn’t mean I’m getting bored of wallrunning games. Who even am I, without wallrunning games?

Julian, Callum and Dion all had their PCs explode simultaneously, in an event the police called “Not suspicious but very funny”

And you, reader dear, what are you playing this weekend?…